UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #86

“The Fractured Earth #3”

The Rockscape Series

 (Watercolour with collage on watercolour paper) 

Size:  83x98cm (framed)

THE IDEAS  and TECHNIQUES USED IN THIS PAINTING:

This is a photo of our beautiful coastline on the Sunshine Coast, Australia.  It looks so beautiful that it is hard to imagine that there is something very wrong with it.  WRONG - Yes!  Scientific studies confirm that the Pacific Ocean is in peril due to pollution and over fishing.  “Populations of marine animals – fish, mammals, reptiles and birds – have declined by an average of 89 percent from their historical highs.”  (from “Frankenstein’s Cat” p.105 by Emily Anthes ).  Also “global warming is raising water temperatures and levels, and changing its acidity and salinity.  Experts are also predicting long-term changes in precipitation, storm frequency and ocean currents and circulation.  These shifts are already having profound effects on marine life. “(p.115).  These concerns are addressed in my Rockscape Series where I have painted ten watercolour paintings. 

This painting #3 addresses pollution.  I picked this drink can off the beach at Pt. Cartwright.  I photocopied the object directly and used the photocopy as the collage.

The subject of the watercolour is taken from my photograph of the rockscape on Pt. Cartwright, seen below.

I have discussed the concept behind this Rockscape Series in Posts Nos. 9, 67, 69, 72, 78 and 81, so dear reader, go to these past posts if you are interested in more about this series.  Each painting addresses a different concern.

The composition of this watercolour is simple and flat.  This is consistent with my style even though I have portrayed the photo realistically.  It is balanced with the viewer’s eye being drawn to where the coke can (the pollution) is, which is the focal point. 

Watercolour paint gives a very soft effect and the colours are clear and unambiguous.  An artist cannot “fudge” a watercolour painting because of its transparent quality.  The style is contemporary.  The form is two dimensional and the concept is abstract.

The title gives the meaning of the art work and this title is used for the whole series.  Each painting in the series is numbered. 

I am a colourist.  I go to great care to create colours in my painting that are unique and I spend endless time planning and mixing these colours.  Watercolour paint is celebrated for the unique way that light is represented through this medium.  However over the past few years, since the advent of PCs, paintings have increasingly been selected and often judged from computer photographs.  As a painter, I find this practice very limited. A painting in reality and a painting produced digitally are not  the same thing.  Moreover size does matters!  When paintings are judged for an exhibition they are all viewed in the “same size” format from a computer and/or projected onto a screen.  Size is an element in the planning and production of a painting, and should not be reduced to one size fits all mentality. 

According to the computer scientist, futurist and author Jaron Lanier, “A digital image of a painting is forever a representation, not a real thing...A digital image, or any other kind of digital fragment is a useful compromise.  It captures a certain limited measurement of reality within a standardized system that removes any of the original source’s unique qualities.  No digital image is really distinct from any other; they can be morphed and mashed up.  That doesn’t mean that digital culture is doomed to be anaemic.  It just means that digital media have to be used with special caution.” (my emphasis)  (from “You are not a Gadget” p.133-4).  In other words a painting loses its inherent integrity when it is copied.  Lanier is very concerned with the way the arts and creativity are being compromised by the way computer programming industry has evolved which, in his view, has rendered the present generation culturally impotent.

Lanier goes on to state, “A real painting is a bottomless mystery, like any other real thing.  A painting changes with time.  It has texture, odour and a sense of presence and history.” (from “You are not a Gadget” p,133-4) Expanding on what Lanier says, I would stress that it also is a form of human expression – no other creature communicates in graphic form nor do they think creatively. 

Once a week over the last 86 weeks, I have prepared and published a post about one of my paintings with an emphasis on Understanding Abstract Art.  However from this week onwards I will be writing on a less regular basis.  I will however notify readers in the same way, through Facebook and LinkedIn.  Therefore expect the next post from me in about a fortnight’s time.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #85

“Togetherness”

(Watercolour)  

20x20cm 

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

This watercolour was the first I attempted.  I took the subject (Bridie and Connie – my granddaughters) from a photograph which my daughter Bernice took.  I thought that the composition was intriguing.  Not having any training in watercolours I was waded into deep water myself and can confirme that watercolour painting is very difficult to master.  It took me quite a time to figure it out and even now I am not completely competent.  A couple of books which are invaluable to the beginner to watercolour painting are ”Making Colors Sing” by Dobie and “Colour Choices – Making Colour Sense out of Colour Theory” by Quiller.  I think that the former is out of print now but you may be lucky to pick up a second hand copy.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

With watercolour painting I am more methodical than I am with acrylic.  I work out the composition and what palette I will use in advance.  Firstly I painted the image in a gradation on a separate sheet of paper to get the highlights.  Then I re-sketched the image onto 300g watercolour paper.  The colours for my palette were then thought out.  I wanted to achieve a cool light as the subject is in natural light, so I kept the background cool and the figures warm.  I keep notes on my painting process when I paint in watercolours.  The palette is below:-

Watercolour Palette:

Aureo. Yellow

Rose Madder

French Ultra Blue

Cad. Red

Windsor Blue (or Phthalo Blue)

Indian Red

Aliz. Crimson

Veridian

Cobalt Blue

Light Red

Windsor Green (or Phthalo G.)

I kept the colours naturalistic with expressionistic overtones.  The palette is analogistic which means that the colours are adjoining on the colour wheel.  There are vibrant notes as seen with the use of yellow.  The painting is in mid tones.  Form is natural with a one point perspective but I have purposely kept the painting flat and stylized as this is generally my approach.

Although this is a genre painting which means it is a painting of everyday life, it is also of my two granddaughters so it is a double portrait also.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #84

“Rejoice” (Satsang Series)

 (Acrylic) 

Size:  90x120cm

THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING:

People often think that meditation is sitting like a statue of Buddha.  While sitting is a training for meditation, meditation is really a lifelong discipline and one cannot sit like Buddha all your life.  Life goes on... and on.  Meditation is being aware in the Now.  Sitting like Buddha is a device to train one in meditation.  Meditation is a discipline of life.

There are many different ways of teaching meditation and some people may not agree with what I say nevertheless this is my knowing of meditation.  I was fortunate to spend time in India where meditation is a major focus.  There are probably many other readers who have spent a life time in monasteries and ashrams and have different approaches.  However we all have to follow our own truth.  My truth is being present in the Now and stilling the mind.  This is my meditation where I can function in life in awareness and stillness.

There are many devices to facilitate one to get a “taste” of meditation, but the end result is paradoxically, very simple but difficult to achieve as are most profound truths. 

On a continuum, the Western world functions at the far extreme from what would be regarded as a meditative life.  The West likes to think, think and think.  There is very little heart activity – it is all in the head.  The internet feeds this obsession.  But who knows, this obsession may in itself lead to meditation.  Computer scientist, Jaron Lanier is a pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran.  He raises provocative questions regarding consciousness.  Here is an excerpt from his book “You are not a Gadget” (2010).   

“You can propose that consciousness is an illusion, but by definition consciousness is the one thing that isn’t reduced if it is an illusion.

There’s a way that consciousness and time are bound together.  If you try to remove any potential hint of mysteriousness from consciousness you end up mystifying time in an absurd way.

Consciousness is situated in time, because you can’t experience a lack of time, and you can’t experience the future.  If consciousness isn’t anything but a false thought in the computer that is your brain, or the universe, then what exactly is it that is situated in time?  The present moment, the only other thing that could be situated in time, must in that case be a freestanding object, independent of the way it is experienced.

The present moment is a rough concept, from a scientific point of view, because of relativity and the latency of thoughts moving in the brain.    We have no means of defining either a single global physical present moment or a precise cognitive present moment.  Nonetheless, there must be some anchor, perhaps a very fuzzy one, somewhere, somehow, for it to be possible to even speak of it.

Maybe you could imagine the present moment as a metaphysical marker travelling through a timeless version of reality, in which the past and the future are already frozen in place, like a recording head moving across a hard disk...”.  (from “You are not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, p.42, 43).

He goes on to articulate his experience when he is in a fully realized immersive virtual reality experiment.  “The body and the rest of reality no longer have a prescribed boundary.  So what are you at this point?  You are floating in there, as a centre of experience.  You notice you exist, because what else could be going on?  I think of Virtual Reality as a consciousness-noticing machine”.  (from “You are not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, p.187).

Wow!  We are on the verge of a new world and I am here for the ride – not to make predictions.

“Rejoice” represents my focus of experience where thoughts (which are shown as undefined shapes) float in the rose coloured sea of my consciousness.  I observe them without judgement and let them go.  Thoughts are a natural phenomenon.  Eventually the mind stills.  That does not mean I don’t think.  Of course when I have to complete a task my mind is focused on the task.  That is natural.  It’s the conscious awareness that is important.

Art Techniques used to achieve this:

The genre of this painting is Spiritual (or perhaps even Esoteric).  In Western art history, the Religious genre in paintings took up a vast swath from early Christianity until the philosophical period called the Enlightenment.

(not to be confused with the word Enlightenment used in meditation.).  Religious paintings were used by the early Christian church as a form of educational propaganda when most of the masses were illiterate.  In India, Hindu painting and sculpture are still richly appreciated and hold a central position in the Indian ethos.  Buddhist art is celebrated as strongly today as in past times in parts of S.E. Asia and India.  However religious, spiritual and esoteric art in the Western world tends to be almost nonexistent today.

The style of “Rejoice” is abstract expressionism.  Its composition is not complex but arbitrary.  The overall  painting is balanced with no major points of focus.  This gives a sense of timelessness.  It’s form is flat with a sense of space. The tone is low.  The palette is complimentary – red and green.  The rosiness of the predominant colour echos the uplifting meaning of its title.   The painting is not signed and can be hung any way.  The title is relevant to the subject.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #83

“Rejuvenation” (Satsang Series)

 (Acrylic) 

Size:  90x120cm

THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING:

A friend used these words to describe my art: “You make it possible for others to reach their subconscious in such an enlightening and yet gentle, whispering way – you embed images of life, love, hope and beauty in their psyches”.  It is always gratifying when someone reflects back to you just what you are trying to achieve – particularly when the concept is not being conveyed in words such as in the case of paintings.

Art making is a life’s work and in fact one’s life becomes the work of art.  This week I had the good fortune to see one of Australia’s top artists being interviewed during the Noosa Long Weekend Festival.  The artist is Michael Leunig.  I call him an artist and also a National Treasure.  However some would call him a cartoonist.  Nevertheless Leunig has been able to convey a “naive wisdom” through his cartoons a bit like Charlie Chaplin conveyed “naive wisdom” through his humour and acting ability.

During the course of the interview, Leunig commented that sadly older artists in Australia are not very well received.  I would agree with what he is saying.  Painting, unlike sport, is an activity that generally improves with age.  Artists like Monet and Olley are such examples.  It takes a life time to be able to call yourself an artist, but when you get to the end of your life, marketing principles that are currently employed in this economic milieu do not see maturity as a viable asset (because the older artist no longer looks good and nor do they have not the productivity expectation that a younger artist would have).  Therefore it is really gratifying when a viewer is congruent with an artist, as was my friend was with me.  A painting may also take years to complete but the viewer often only takes a minute or two to make a snap judgement on that art work.

“Rejuvenation” is one of the last of the Satsang Series.  It was painted after I returned from India.  The Satsang Series is about meditation, however this painting and its twin, “Rejoice” were painted at a time when I was also becoming concerned with environmental issues.  Both paintings reflect a transition period in my art career.  Later my focus for painting changed to being less esoteric. 

Art Techniques used to achieve this:

The genre for “Rejuvenation” is Spiritual (not Religious).  It is part of the Satsang Series and could perhaps be described as Esoteric.  The Satsang Series is about stillness.  Each painting in the series represents meditation.  Meditation has been practiced in the East for thousands of years.  It is a type of spiritual philosophy which is part of the process of living and operates around the concept of “being” with a focus on the Now. The Western world is more involved with a conference of ideas and a concept of “doing” and its focus is on the future.

“Rejuvenation” is a meditation in which thoughts move in and out of consciousness and are observed with no judgement.  This brings about a sense of timelessness.

I do not sign my paintings for two reasons.  Firstly because by signing I am indicating which way the painting should be hung.  In this series I have purposely made the composition balanced from all sides, so it is up to the viewer to decide which way they like it.  Secondly, by signing an art piece, I put my “stamp” on it thus stating ownership.  This series is not about ownership but is depicting just “being in the Now”.  Therefore it can be said that its composition is fairly arbitrary but intuitively balanced.

Its form is two dimensional – no attempt at perspective. Its colour palette is complimentary ie. orange and blue.

Next week I will discuss “Rejoice” which is the twin to “Rejuvenation”.  They are not a diptych but both are similar in that they represent a transitory stage in my art and the close of the Satsang Series. 

http://www.buderimartstudio.com